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The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is scheduled approve a $2.2 billion budget Monday for the next fiscal year starting July 1. The budget will include raises for the county’s nearly 13,000 employees, their first in more than five years.

Nik Wallenda is scheduled to make the big walk across a northern Arizona canyon Sunday at 5 p.m. Mountain Standard Time. The Florida daredevil will attempt to cross a portion of the Little Colorado River on a wire tightrope.

Less than a week after Gov. Jan Brewer signed the Medicaid expansion plan into law, opponents are starting to collect signatures to put it on the ballot.They will start canvasing Saturday afternoon, and if they can collect 86,405 valid signatuers by September 11, the law will be put on hold, pending the November, 2014 election.

The Prescott Bluegrass Festival is still scheduled to begin Saturday. The Doce fire has not cancelled the event. Even though the fire continues to burn, the Chamber of Commerce said there is no smoke downtown, and all roads are still open.

The Phoenix Coyotes
will be keeping their coach, even as their ownership situation remains in flux. Dave Tippett has agreed to a long-term
contract extension with the team. The Coyotes have made the playoffs three
times in his four seasons as coach.

Fire managers plan to conduct burnout operations Friday afternoon and will work into the night. Residents in the area will not be evacuated. Burnout operations help to create a buffer between the fire and the community.

Arizona school districts are now able to increase their debt load for construction projects under a measure approved by state lawmakers. It gives districts authority to sell more bonds to build schools or remodel classrooms.

"Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" is a new musical revamping a historic tale. KJZZ theater critic, Robrt Pela has a review. A rock musical American history lesson that commences with the line, “Here’s the thing about the Indians!” then segues into a song whose refrain is, “Populism, yeah, yeah!” cannot be all bad, and in its brand-new, Ron May-directed Phoenix Theatre production, it is sublime.

Arizona drivers are seeing
some relief at the gas pump, ahead of the Independence Day weekend, as prices
stabilized somewhat this week. The statewide average this morning is $3.50 a gallon,
up a little more than a penny from a week ago, but still 10 cents below the
national average of $3.

Border
Patrol agents in southern Arizona
have arrested two Mexican nationals on drug smuggling charges. Spokesman Brent
Cagen says they found more than 930 pounds of marijuana in their vehicle, which
had a phony U.

Crews
battling the Doce Fire, west of Prescott,
say they have the blaze about 10 percent contained, at nearly 6,400 acres. Incident commander Tony Sciacca said forecasters are predicting a decline in
wind speeds near the fire, with an increase in humidity.

Congressman Raúl Grijalva and 29 congressional members sent
a letter to the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell on Thursday, asking her to
reform the Bureau of Land Management Wild Horse and Burro Program.

Fire crews have contained the Halfway Fire burning near Tusayan on the south rim of the Grand Canyon. The Halfway Fire broke out Wednesday, and crews managed to contain the blaze by Thursday afternoon.

Tucson’s new ordinance granting civil unions to same-sex couples goes into effect in a few weeks. The Tucson City Council voted to change the city’s existing domestic partnership ordinance so that it includes civil unions.

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